Quote

When absolute control and rigid obedience pose as love within the family and the local faith-community , we produce trained cowards rather than Christian persons.

Brennan Manning

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Brennan Manning
Age: 75 †
Born: 1937
Born: April 27
Died: 2013
Died: April 12
Author
Catholic Priest
Theologian
New York City
New York
Richard Francis Xavier Manning
Family
Absolutes
Cowards
Christian
Absolute
Pose
Persons
Produce
Rigid
Love
Control
Trained
Within
Coward
Community
Locals
Rather
Local
Faith
Obedience

More quotes by Brennan Manning

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Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of grace.
Brennan Manning
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The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches. For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours, not by right, but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God.
Brennan Manning
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Whatever we have done in the past, be it good or evil, great or small, is irrelevant to our stance before God today. It is only NOW that we are in the presence of God.
Brennan Manning
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The ragamuffin gospel reveals that Jesus forgives sins, including the sins of the flesh that He is comfortable with sinners who remember how to show compassion but that He cannot and will not have a relationship with pretenders in the Spirit.
Brennan Manning
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Reality, truth, and Jesus Christ are incredibly open-ended
Brennan Manning
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Quia amasti me, fecisti me amabilem. (In loving me, you made me lovable.)
Brennan Manning
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The Good News of the gospel of grace cries out: We are all, equally, privileged but unentitled beggars at the door of God's mercy!
Brennan Manning
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As we come to grips with our own selfishness and stupidity, we make friends with the impostor and accept that we are impoverished and broken and realize that, if we were not, we would be God. The art of gentleness toward ourselves leads to being gentle with others -- and is a natural prerequisite for our presence to God in prayer.
Brennan Manning
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Ruthless trust ultimately comes down to this: faith in the person of Jesus and hope in his promise.
Brennan Manning
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Christianity happens when men and women accept with unwavering trust that their sins have been not only forgiven, but forgotten, washed away in the blood of the Lamb. Thus, my friend archbishop Joe Reia says, A sad Christian is a phony Christian, and a guilty Christian is no Christian at all.
Brennan Manning
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The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.
Brennan Manning
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Christianity doesn’t deny the reality of suffering and evil… Our hope… is not based on the idea that we are going to be free of pain and suffering. Rather, it is based on the conviction that we will triumph over suffering.
Brennan Manning
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The way you are with others every day, regardless of their status, is the true test of faith.
Brennan Manning
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All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God
Brennan Manning
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The beauty of the ragamuffin gospel lies in the insight it offers into Jesus: the essential tenderness of His heart, His way of looking at the world, His mode of relating to you and me. 'If you really want to understand a man, don't just listen to what he says, but watch what he does.
Brennan Manning
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How I treat a brother or sister from day to day, how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street, how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike, how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life than the antiabortion sticker on the bumper of my car.
Brennan Manning
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What makes the Kingdom come is heartfelt compassion: a way of tenderness that knows no frontiers, no labels, no compartmentalizing, and no sectarian divisions.
Brennan Manning
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Jesus reveals a God who does not demand but who gives who does not oppress but who raises up who does not wound but who heals who does not condemn but forgives.
Brennan Manning
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Rome is burning, Jesus says. Drop your fiddle, change your life and come to Me. Let go of the good days that never were - a regimented church you never attended, traditional virtues you never practiced, legalistic obedience you never honored, and a sterile orthodoxy you never accepted. The old era is done. The decisive inbreak of God has happened.
Brennan Manning
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Only reckless confidence in a Source greater than ourselves can empower us to forgive the woulds inflicted by others.
Brennan Manning